The World Food Programme has announced resuming the milling of grain in Hodeidah, while the Yemeni government accused Houthis of looting hundreds of relief trucks in a year.

Minister of Local Administration and Higher Committee for Relief (HRC) Chairman Abdul Raqib Fatah said that the militias looted around 440 trucks of food, medicines, and fuel in the period extending from Stockholm Agreement's signing on Dec. 23, 2018, till the end of Dec. in 2019.

In his statements, Fatah noted that the militias plundered medical aid for infantile paralysis and swine influenza in several provinces – then, they sold it to private hospitals for costly prices. They also looted YER600 million (USD1 equals to YER600) belonging to WFP, given that this amount was allocated for infantile paralysis.

The minister added that the insurgents’ violations extended to the relief organizations staff, in which they banned 120 employees from accessing one of the WFP stores in Hodeidah. The store contains 51,000 tonnes of aid that is sufficient for more than 3.7 million individuals for more than 8 months. Those warehouses were even shelled, leading to the damage of a great part.

Fatah also accused the Houthis of detaining 20 employees of the Agency for Technical Cooperation and Development (ACTED) and banning them from implementing the relief projects – further, they prohibited them from leaving Bani Qais and confiscated their passports for more than a week.

He added that the Houthis established the ‘Supreme Council for the Management and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and International Cooperation’ -- it imposes a 20 percent fee that goes to the council in return for any project executed by the UN.

According to Fatah, this is deemed as a flagrant intervention in the humanitarian process and illegal use of funds allocated for relief projects.

Moreover, he stressed that the legitimate government adheres to the instructions given by Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi and welcomes efforts exerted to elevate the humanitarian situation.

The minister urged UN emergency relief coordinator Mark Lowcock and UN Resident Coordinator in Yemen Lise Grande to act responsibly and bring up these issues at the UN and the Security Council to put an end to the militias’ violations regarding the relief aid.

He also demanded that they quickly intervene and exert pressure on the Houthis to refrain from meddling in the humanitarian process.

So far just over 4,500 tonnes have been milled into flour, the WFP said Monday, after resuming its activities that were halted for four days because of the Houthis' attacks.